Indonesian authorities are scouring waters near Bali for about 60 Afghan asylum seekers reportedly trapped in a drifting boat.

A helicopter and four boats - including two from mining company Newmont - are involved in the search off Sumbawa, east of Bali.

The search and rescue team say it has been more than a day since the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) sent them possible search coordinates and three Indonesian mobile numbers thought to be used by those on board the boat, but so far there has been no sign of the boat.

Ian Rintoul, an activist from the Refugee Action Collective, says he has been in touch with those on the boat.

"I spoke to some of the people on the boat and they are OK but in need of assistance," he said.

"They still have no engine and they are still drifting."

Mr Rintoul spoke to people on board the boat on Thursday, who said they were in rough waters and extremely distressed.

There were fears earlier the boat had sunk.

Mr Rintoul says there are more than 60 ethnic Hazara Afghans on board, "some of them families".

He contacted AMSA, which alerted Indonesian authorities.

Members of the national disaster management agency have also been searching the south-west coast of Sumbawa on foot.

A Hazara association in Australia, which also said it had spoken to people on the boat, called on Australian authorities to help with the search.

"We are requesting the Australian government to coordinate with the Indonesian government and provide whatever resources and assistance are needed to search for the boat,"

said Ali Mohammadi, head of Australia's United Hazara Association.

Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities say they found a boat believed to have been used to transport asylum seekers, beached on the island of Lombok.

It is white and much larger than those used by local villagers, who say they saw foreigners run from it when it came ashore.

But that happened on Wednesday, a full day before the distress call went out. And officials say AMSA gave them possible search coordinates about 30km further east, near the island of Sumbawa.

On Sunday a Singapore-registered tanker rescued around 120 Australia-bound asylum seekers - all males and mostly Afghans and some Iranians - from their sinking wooden boat.

They finally disembarked in Indonesia, after refusing to get off the docked tanker for two days, insisting they be allowed to continue their journey to Australia.

In December, a boat carrying about 250 mostly Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters on its way to Christmas Island, with only 47 people surviving.